Film Freak Centraltag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-999282957331064452016-09-18T14:50:40-05:00TypePadFemale Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection - Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01bb0937d867970d2016-09-18T14:50:40-05:002016-09-18T16:07:11-05:00Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) ***½/**** Image A- Sound B+ Extras B+ starring Meiko Kaji, Natsuyagi Isao, Rie Yokoyama, Fumio Watanabe written by Fumio Kônami and Hirô Matsuda, from the manga by Toru Shinohara directed by Shunya Itô Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972) ****/**** Image A- Sound B+ Extras B+ starring Meiko Kaji, Kayoko Shiraishi, Fumio Watanabe, Eiko Yanami written by Shunya Itô, Fumio Kônami and Hirô Matsuda, from the manga by Toru Shinohara directed by Shunya Itô Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973) ***/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras B starring Meiko Kaji, Mikio Narita, Koji Nanbara, Yayoi Watanabe written by Hirô Matsuda, from the manga by Toru Shinohara directed by Shunya Itô Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song (1973) **½/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras B starring Meiko Kaji, Masakazu Tamura, Toshiyuki Hosokawa, Sanae Nakahara written by Fumio Kônami, Hirô Matsuda and Yasuharu Hasebe, from the manga by Toru Shinohara directed by Yasuharu Hasebe by Bryant Frazer One of the most audacious debuts in cinematic history is rookie Shunya Itô's expressionist rape-revenge saga, the Female Prisoner Scorpion trilogy. These three films, released in the 11-month period between August 1972 and July 1973, elevate Japanese studio Toei's series...Bryant FrazerThe Swinging Cheerleaders (1974) - Blu-ray + DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b7c8832eeb970b2016-08-04T20:16:38-05:002016-08-04T20:35:54-05:00***/**** Image A Sound A- Extras A- starring Jo Johnston, Rainbeaux Smith, Colleen Camp, Rosanne Katon written by Jane Witherspoon & Betty Conklin directed by Jack Hill by Bryant Frazer At some point during the free-for-all brawl that climaxes The Swinging Cheerleaders, I remember thinking to myself, "This has got to be one of the most American movies ever made." I was reacting in part to the iconography--cheerleaders fighting policeman fighting college footballers, almost in the manner of a silent comedy, as Scott Joplin plays on the soundtrack--but also to the mood of the film, in which converging themes of corruption and cynicism lead to an eruption of chaotic, comic violence, and open-hearted jocks make way for joyous optimism to prevail. Buy at Amazon.com Buy at Amazon.ca RUNNING TIME 91 minutes MPAA R Unrated ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.64:1 (1080p/MPEG-4) LANGUAGES English 1.0 LPCM SUBTITLES English SDH REGION All DISC TYPE BD-50 STUDIO Arrow The Swinging Cheerleaders takes place in a world where feminism assumes facts about male chauvinism that are not in evidence, where leftist radicals are dishonest, rat-faced perverts, and where small-town athletes are not just lovers and fighters but the ultimate moral authority as well. But director Jack Hill...Bryant FrazerThe Legend of Hell House (1973) - Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b7c879f690970b2016-07-12T20:47:05-05:002016-07-12T21:07:34-05:00***/**** Image A- Sound B Extras B starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt screenplay by Richard Matheson, based upon his novel Hell House directed by John Hough by Bryant Frazer Released in the summer of 1973, this film version of Richard Matheson's 1971 novel Hell House arrived during a transformative period for horror movies--especially British horror. The gothic trappings popularized by England's Hammer Pictures were being upstaged by the more contemporary settings of hits like Night of the Living Dead, which reflected America's misadventures in Vietnam in a disorienting funhouse mirror, and Rosemary's Baby, which brought Satanism out of the woods and into the city. Hammer tried to keep up with more salacious endeavours like the lesbian-themed Karnstein trilogy, but the old-school horror movie was pretty much put out to pasture when The Exorcist debuted at the end of '73. By some measures, then, The Legend of Hell House was ahead of its time, even though it failed to fully capitalize on themes The Exorcist popularized: spiritual possession, sexual abandon, and the failure of rational thought to deal adequately with supernatural phenomena. Buy at Amazon.com Buy at Amazon.ca RUNNING TIME 94 minutes MPAA PG ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.85:1...Bryant FrazerThe Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) - DVD|Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b8d1e8b04f970c2016-06-06T23:01:00-05:002016-05-18T15:32:46-05:00Il gatto a nove code **½/**** DVD - Image B+ Sound B+ Extras A BD - Image A+ Sound A Extras A- starring James Franciscus, Karl Malden, Catherine Spaak, Pier Paolo Capponi written and directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw Nicknamed "The Italian Hitchcock," Dario Argento is more aptly classified "The Italian DePalma": a director with his own set of stylistic excesses who, especially early in his career, borrowed many tropes from the Master of Suspense en route to crafting his own distinctive thrillers. Again like DePalma, Argento of late has fallen on hard times, creating a series of clunkers that have blundered from the brilliant homage of his nascence to the tired and derivative garbage of his twilight. Indicated by somewhat straightforward mystery plots that elaborate death scenes and gory climaxes serve to punctuate, the giallo (so named for the colour of the covers--yellow--that enshrouded Italian penny dreadfuls) genre of thriller reached its stylistic apex with Argento's 1975 Deep Red, just prior to the director experimenting in the "supernatural" sub-genre of Italian horror with his masterpiece, Suspiria. Argento's first three films, the so-called "animal trilogy" (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o' Nine Tails, Four Flies...Walter ChawBatbabe: The Dark Nightie (2009) + The Stewardesses (1971) [2-DVD Set] - DVDstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01bb08cb1d95970d2016-03-19T11:08:36-05:002016-03-19T11:09:41-05:00BATBABE: THE DARK NIGHTIE *½/**** Image B- Sound B Extras C starring Darian Caine, Molly Heartbreaker, Jackie Stevens, Smoke Williams written and directed by John Bacchus THE STEWARDESSES */**** Image B- Sound B- Extras A starring Michael Garrett, Christina Hart, William Basil written and directed by Al Silliman Jr. by Ian Pugh It may seem ridiculous to call a softcore porno spoof of The Dark Knight a disappointment, but I've been aching to see any sort of comedic critical response to Christopher Nolan's masterpiece since it stole my heart last summer. We should always be willing to throw our sacred cows onto the fire to test their mettle, and we're woefully lacking in the right forums to do so: MAD MAGAZINE lost its currency a while back (or maybe I just turned 16) and Internet satire is too scattershot. Where else are we to turn for our defiant, independent parodies of the instant classics of modern culture? Porn, of course. Leave it to some clever guy in the adult industry to come up with the Jerker (Rob Mendara), a devious clown/agent of chaos/chronic masturbator out to prove that everyone is capable of descending to his level of depravity--by stealing all...Bill ChambersThe Pink Panther Film Collection [6-Disc DVD Collector's Set - Special Edition] - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01bb08c8dbbb970d2016-03-15T23:01:00-05:002016-03-16T09:16:41-05:00THE PINK PANTHER (1964) *½/**** Image A+ Sound B+ Extras B starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner, Capucine screenplay by Maurice Richlin and Blake Edwards directed by Blake Edwards A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964) ***/**** Image B+ Sound B+ starring Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Herbert Lom screenplay by William Peter Blatty and Blake Edwards, based on the play by Harry Kurnitz directed by Blake Edwards THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976) ***½/**** Image A- Sound A- starring Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Lesley-Anne Down, Burt Kwouk screenplay by Frank Waldman, Blake Edwards directed by Blake Edwards REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER (1978) *½/**** Image A Sound A- starring Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Dyan Cannon screenplay by Ron Clark, Frank Waldman, Blake Edwards directed by Blake Edwards TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER (1982) */**** Image A Sound A- starring Peter Sellers, David Niven, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley screenplay by Frank Waldman, Tom Waldman, Blake Edwards, Geoffrey Edwards directed by Blake Edwards by Bill Chambers If you've never seen the one that started it all, then it will probably surprise you to learn that The Pink Panther is all but a pre-emptive strike against a possible franchise--practically...Bill ChambersFight for Your Life (1977) - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01bb08bd4943970d2016-02-26T00:01:00-05:002016-02-25T13:02:32-05:00*½/**** Image A Sound B Extras B+ starring William Sanderson, Robert Judd, Reginald Bythewood, Lela Small screenplay by Straw Weisman directed by Robert A. Endelson by Bill Chambers The package containing Fight for Your Life drew me towards it the way a pie cooling on the windowsill draws fugitives from chain gangs. Something I hate about myself is my susceptibility to ironic temptation: Here was this DVD with one third of "Newhart"'s Larry, Darryl, and Darryl having a barechested brawl with a Famous Amos look-alike on the cover, and like a not-so-metaphorical rat to cheese, I had to spin it immediately. Further patronizing me was a pull quote from All Movie Guide declaring Fight for Your Life "the least politically correct movie ever seen in American theaters." Coupled with my foreknowledge of the film's ongoing ban in the United Kingdom, why, that's "I gots ta know" territory. The film was now in the challenging position of having to meet a set of lopsided expectations: If it turned out to be anything less than transcendent schlock, I'd feel cheated. RUNNING TIME 86 minutes MPAA Not Rated ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.85:1 (16x9-enhanced) LANGUAGES English DD 2.0 (Mono) CC Yes SUBTITLES None REGION 1...Bill ChambersShampoo (1975) - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b8d192c8a2970c2016-01-18T00:01:00-05:002016-01-16T21:41:40-05:00***½/**** Image B- Sound B starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant screenplay by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty directed by Hal Ashby by Bill Chambers SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. To put things in perspective, Tootsie is, arguably, a remake of Hal Ashby's carefully-cultivated 1975 classic Shampoo, except that it goes one step farther in feminizing the lead by putting him in drag--and takes a step backward in deciding the fallout of his deceptions. Making fantasy out of Tootsie's ending, Shampoo comes to terms with the reality of a lothario getting his foot caught in his own trap by giving the last word to The Beach Boys: "You know it seems the more we talk about it," they sing of unfeasible marital bliss in the film's closing song ("Wouldn't It Be Nice"), "it only makes it worse to live without it." RUNNING TIME 108 minutes MPAA R ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.85:1 (16x9-enhanced) 1.33:1 LANGUAGES English DD 2.0 (Mono) French DD 2.0 (Mono) CC Yes SUBTITLES English French Spanish Portuguese Korean Thai Chinese Japanese REGION 1 DISC TYPE DVD-9 STUDIO Columbia TriStar This is a movie that tenders the taming of Shampoo's co-writer, producer, and star Warren Beatty and then...Bill ChambersThe Sentinel (1977) - Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b7c7e43144970b2015-10-28T14:38:59-05:002015-10-28T14:38:59-05:00*½/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras B+ starring Chris Sarandon, Cristina Raines, Martin Balsam, John Carradine screenplay by Michael Winner and Jeffrey Konvitz, based on the novel by Konvitz directed by Michael Winner by Bryant Frazer Death Wish director Michael Winner tried his hand at a boilerplate horror flick with The Sentinel, another in the long-running cycle of American horror films that doubled as scary religious propaganda, with the faith of Catholic priests the last bulwark against harrowing incursions by Satan himself on our mortal realm. It's not a good movie, but it has a hell of a supporting cast--Christopher Walken, Eli Wallach, and Ava Gardner, just for starters--and that specific, vaguely gritty time-and-place authenticity that you could only get by shooting on location in New York City in the 1970s. For this type of genre piece, that ensures a small kind of immortality, but Winner, indifferently adapting a best-selling novel and barely directing a lead actress who hates him, brings to it a certain je ne sais quoi that pushes it over the line into the sleazeball hall of fame. Buy at Amazon.com Buy at Amazon.ca RUNNING TIME 92 minutes MPAA R ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.77:1 (1080p/MPEG-4) LANGUAGES English 2.0...Bill ChambersThe Food of the Gods (1976)/Frogs (1972) [Double Feature] + Empire of the Ants (1977)/Jaws of Satan (1981) [Double Feature] - Blu-ray Discstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01bb08870019970d2015-10-26T13:36:50-05:002015-10-26T14:00:57-05:00THE FOOD OF THE GODS **½/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras C starring Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Ida Lupino screenplay by Bert I. Gordon, based on a portion of the novel by H.G. Wells directed by Bert I. Gordon FROGS **/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras C starring Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark, Adam Roarke screenplay by Robert Hutchison and Robert Blees directed by George McCowan EMPIRE OF THE ANTS *½/**** Image B+ Sound B Extras C- starring Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, John David Carson, Albert Salmi screenplay by Jack Turley, story by Bert I. Gordon, based on the novel by H.G. Wells directed by Bert I. Gordon King Cobra ***/**** Image B+ Sound B Extras C- starring Fritz Weaver, Gretchen Corbett, Jon Korkes, Norman Lloyd screenplay by Gerry Holland, from a story by James Callaway directed by Bob Claver by Jefferson Robbins If THE DISSOLVE had lasted, Keith Phipps's fine recurring genre feature "The Laser Age" might have gotten around to the SF subcategory of Nature Gone Wild--the movies that set animals against humanity, such as The Swarm, Night of the Lepus, Squirm, and Prophecy (The Monster Movie). Distinctly a 1970s phenomenon, as we fretted...Bill ChambersThe Legacy (1978) - Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b8d16a2317970c2015-10-20T09:41:53-05:002015-10-21T14:53:03-05:00**½/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras B starring Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, Roger Daltrey, John Standing screenplay by Jimmy Sangster, Patrick Tilley and Paul Wheeler from a story by Sangster directed by Richard Marquand by Bryant Frazer One in a spate of post-The Exorcist, post-Rosemary's Baby potboilers about ordinary people confronting ancient evil in the modern world, The Legacy has an enduring reputation as a big slice of horror cheese and not much else. Certainly, it's derivative--just another old-dark-house yarn set in the English countryside, spiced up in '70s fashion with a sinister, Satanic backstory that never quite clicks together. It's one of the last horror movies to come out in the handsomely-mounted classic style favoured by Hammer before contemporary slashers and body-horror changed the game completely in the 1980s, but what it lacks in originality and coherence it makes up for in comfy genre atmosphere. Co-scriptor Jimmy Sangster was one of the top dogs at Hammer Film Productions (his writing credits include Horror of Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein) and Welsh director Richard Marquand was a BBC documentarian making his fiction debut (he would go on to direct Return of the Jedi). That's not a world-beating combination, but...Bill ChambersFantastic Fest '15: Belladonna of Sadness (1973)tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b7c7dfc23b970b2015-10-19T14:46:46-05:002015-10-19T14:50:01-05:00****/**** written by Yoshiyuki Fukuda, Eiichi Yamamoto, based on the novel La sorcière by Jules Michelet directed by Eiichi Yamamoto by Walter Chaw The completion of Osamu Tezuka's "Animerama," a trilogy of early-'70s erotica initially imagined as a tie-in to that era's "pink films" that eventually applied their boundary-testing to its own form and function, Belladonna of Sadness is the only one of the three pictures to, ironically, feature no direct involvement from Tezuka. Instead, longtime collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto takes the reins and, in this loose adaptation of a non-fiction tract on witchcraft and Satanism, produces the headwaters for everything from hentai to Andrzej Zulawski's Possession. It's a template that parallels Ralph Bakshi's dabbling in ani-porn, a thing that runs on evocations of Roman Polanski in not just its function and form, but also the drawing of its heroine, Jeanne, as the very image of Sharon Tate. The fate of pretty blondes is a primary concern of Polanski's in this period--no less so enacted through this saga of a woman, raped and humiliated before, in the end, like Yeats's Leda, she takes on the power of her patriarchal tormentors to exact precise, poetic vengeance. The artwork pulls from various sources:...Bill ChambersThe Christopher Lee Collection - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b8d15f8ac0970c2015-09-29T11:34:48-05:002015-09-29T11:36:44-05:00CIRCUS OF FEAR (1966) *½/**** Image B+ Sound B Extras B starring Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, Anthony Newlands, Heinz Drache screenplay by Peter Welbeck directed by John Moxey THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU (1968) */**** Image B Sound B Extras A starring Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, Maria Rohm, Howard Marion Crawford screenplay by Peter Welbeck directed by Jess Franco THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969) *½/**** Image B Sound B Extras A starring Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, Maria Perschy, Richard Greene screenplay by Peter Welbeck directed by Jess Franco THE BLOODY JUDGE/Il trono di fuoco (1970) **/**** Image A Sound B Extras A starring Christopher Lee, Maria Schell, Leo Genn, Maria Rohm screenplay by Anthony Scott Veitch directed by Jess Franco by Walter Chaw The sort of box set that horror fans and film historians slaver over (though Sino-Western ambassadors probably aren't too pleased about), Blue Underground's exceptionally, reverently remastered four-disc "Christopher Lee Collection" gathers four obscure Lee pictures--The Blood of Fu Manchu, The Castle of Fu Manchu, Circus of Fear, and The Bloody Judge--in presentations so vibrant and beautiful that they're almost enough to distract from the uniform tediousness of the films themselves. A little like avant-garde cinema, these...Bill ChambersGates of Heaven/Vernon, Florida [The Criterion Collection] - Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b7c7c60910970b2015-08-30T09:58:40-05:002015-08-30T15:38:45-05:00VERNON, FLORIDA (1981) ****/**** directed by Errol Morris GATES OF HEAVEN (1978) ****/**** directed by Errol Morris Image B+ Sound B+ Extras C by Walter Chaw Trying to decode what it is about Errol Morris's best work is a thorny proposition. There are times his work feels mocking, but it's always uncertain whether that's extant in the piece or intrinsic in the audience. Certainly, it's tempting for me to compare Morris--especially early Morris--to Diane Arbus or Shelby Lee Adams, but even the marriage of those two artists in opposition or sympathy to Morris opens cans of syllogistic worms. At the least, it's not much of a stretch to predict, just based on his first two films, Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida (both sharing space on a new Criterion Blu-ray), that he would one day partner with Werner Herzog--another brilliant documentarian who lives right there on the edge of disdain for subject/spectator, surrealism/documentary, Brechtian absurdity/Maysles vérité--and that the two of them would, together, support someone like Joshua Oppenheimer. I interviewed Errol Morris back upon the release of his Robert McNamara documentary The Fog of War and was existentially worried to do so. All this by way of saying that I...Bill ChambersHarry and Tonto (1974) - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01b8d1497c44970c2015-08-14T23:01:00-05:002015-08-14T21:42:20-05:00**/**** Image B+ Sound B Commentary B+ starring Art Carney, Ellen Burstyn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Larry Hagman screenplay by Paul Mazursky and Josh Greenfeld directed by Paul Mazursky by Alex Jackson I complain a lot about film criticism being reduced to archaeology, but I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as impenetrable along these lines as Paul Mazursky's 1974 sleeper Harry and Tonto. It never coheres, it never makes its point, and it never justifies its existence. You know Mr. Bernstein's anecdote about the girl in the white dress in Citizen Kane, or Marge Gunderson's drink with her old high school chum in Fargo--those nice little throwaway moments that haven't much to do with the actual movie? In Harry and Tonto, Mazursky gets rid of the "actual movie" and gives us nothing but throwaway moments. Yeah, it's that kind of film. TRUNNING TIME 115 minutes MPAA R ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.85:1 (16x9-enhanced) LANGUAGES English DD 2.0 (Stereo) English DD 2.0 (Mono) Spanish DD 2.0 (Mono) CC Yes SUBTITLES English Spanish REGION 1 DISC TYPE DVD-9 STUDIO Fox Stylistically, it almost goes without saying that Mazursky is not a filmmaker in love with his medium. But it's not merely that he doesn't...Bill Chambers